Universal-Investment has been awarded one of the largest sourcing mandates ever awarded in the German investment sector, making it responsible for the fund price calculation and statutory reporting, among other services, of all of the approx. 300 retail and special institutional funds launched at Metzler Asset Management with a total volume of more than EUR 56 billion. Both parties have signed a sourcing agreement to this effect. For Metzler, this move is a further step towards implementing its strategic transformation and outsourcing part of the value chain in order to specifically concentrate on expanding its customer-focused services in portfolio management, pension management, sustainability investments and Master-KVG.

"The trend in the investment sector towards specializing in either asset management or administration is striding ahead. As a fund service platform, our focus clearly lies on the administration side. The scaling effects arising from this will enable us to invest in digitalization and fulfil the ever increasing volume of regulatory requirements. Our success in taking over nearly 300 funds with around 600 tranches and segments is also a tribute to the strength of our platform and employees. The agreement additionally represents a key milestone in achieving our long-term goals and becoming the leading fund service platform for all asset classes in Europe," said Universal-Investment CEO Michael Reinhard.

"Given our aim as asset managers to place even greater emphasis on selected customer-focused services such as portfolio management, pension management and Master KVG, our decision to outsource sections of the highly scalable fund administration to a specialist fits well into this strategy - particularly as it enables us to remain the first point of contact for our fund customers. As a former co-shareholder and long-standing business partner, we are well acquainted with Universal-Investment and familiar with the high quality of service that we and our customers can expect. Our collaboration in the current onboarding process underlines this experience," said Dr. Marco Schulmerich, Metzler Partner for the core segment Asset Management and Managing Director of the KVG (investment management company) as justification for the decision to outsource the mandate. However, Metzler will continue operating as KVG and offering high-quality Master-KVG solutions for institutional investors.

Up to 30 new employees to be hired to manage fund migration in second quarter 2020

Metzler to place even greater emphasis on customer-focused services in asset management, also continuing as Master KVG

Today the two companies already share a large number of customers, with Universal-Investment operating as Master-KVG and Metzler as asset manager. In the FX overlay segment, the parties see further potential to intensify business relations and collaborations in the medium term. There are also plans to step up the collaboration in the areas of pension management and asset-liability management. "Metzler and Universal-Investment have a shared value – the focus on independence – a further reason why we look forward to working even closer with Metzler Asset Management," said Chief Customer Officer Katja Müller.

Compatible IT systems

To ensure a smooth handling of the migration and future administration of the funds, Universal-Investment will be working with additional external providers and will hire up to 30 new employees. Both parties are therefore making extensive preparations and working hard to ensure implementation of the IT interfaces by the second quarter of 2020 when the changeover is scheduled to take place. The fact that Universal-Investment and Metzler Asset Management use the same software for funds valuation and accounting procedures is proving helpful in this regard.

The additional volume from the Metzler funds will raise Universal-Investment’s administered assets to well above the EUR 500 billion mark. Besides such sourcing mandates, this expansion is also largely attributable to the strong organic growth of the last financial year which ended in September 2019. The newly launched funds, the mandates awarded and capital inflows into existing German and Luxembourg special institutional and retail funds have boosted the volume of assets under administration by more than EUR 73 billion within this one-year period, i.e. growth of about 18 percent within a year.